228 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



served largely to spread the knowledge of the numerals which we now 

 employ. This " Algorism " was first published at Strassburg in 1488 

 and at least thirteen other editions followed before fifty years had 

 elapsed. In the first edition it appeared with a computus, the title ap- 

 plied to works on the arithmetic of the church calendar. The Latin 

 version of our rhyme " Thirty days hath September," etc., appears in 

 this " Compotus Manualis n (in verse) and was written by Anianus, a 

 Strassburg astronomer and poet. The name algorism was applied for 

 some five hundred years to the arithmetic which explained the method 

 of reckoning with the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The word is a cor- 

 ruption from the name of Mohammed ben Musa, al- Khowarazmi, whose 

 Arabic work on this subject was translated into Latin in the early 

 twelfth century. Early manuscripts of Sacrobosco's classic are found 

 in the Columbia Library as well as in the Plimpton collection. 



Many theologians and churchmen, among the earliest of these may 

 be mentioned the Venerable Bede (c. a.d. 700), and Cassioclorus (c. 

 a.d. 550), amused themselves by writing arithmetics, but this was in- 

 evitable in the period when learning was so largely confined to church 

 institutions. Thomas Bradwardin (c. 1290-1349), who was professor 

 of theology at Oxford and later archbishop of Canterbury, wrote ex- 

 tensively on mathematics. His name suffered, as did many others, at 

 the hands of transcribers, being found as Bragwardine, Brandnardinus, 

 Bredwardyn, Bradwardyn, de Bradwardina and de Bredwardina. 

 Another of these professors of theology was Christian Ursinus (also 

 known as Allassiderus, Allassisiderus, Wursteisen or Urstis) who pub- 

 lished in 1579 at Basel an arithmetic entitled " Elementa Arith- 

 meticee." 



The surnames, as noted above, were rather shabbily treated from the 

 modern point of view, since the first names were regarded as the im- 

 portant ones. It was common, too, for scholars to Latinize their 

 names, or more rarely to give the Greek equivalent. The reformer 

 Melanchthon, who appears as a writer on the nature and value of mathe- 

 matics, was baptized Schwarzerd. Schreiber (c. 1525) became as a 

 writer of school texts Grammateus, but was also known as Scriptor. 

 Melanchthon's friend, Camerarius, who was also a classical scholar, was 

 born as Liebhard. Camerarius wrote a commentary on the arithmetic 

 of Nicomachus. Conrad Dasypodius, whose family name was originally 

 Rauchfuss or Hasenfuss, wrote two works which should have been in- 

 cluded in this catalogue. Copies of these rare books, both published at 

 Strassburg in 1567-1570 and 1593-1596, respectively, are found in the 

 Astor Library. The older one is entitled " First and Simplest Mathe- 

 matics," and is partly in Greek and partly in Latin, treating of geom- 

 etry, logistic (a Greek name for practical arithmetic), astronomy and 

 geography. The writer was professor of mathematics at Strassburg 



